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Award Winner (Frederick Carleton Award) 2024: Masahiro Akimoto

Masahiro Akimoto

Heartseed Inc.

I was surprised and incredibly honored to receive this award.  Words cannot fully express my gratitude for this recognition. Receiving this award reminds me of the importance of learning, collaborating and communicating on pharmaceutical science facilitated by PDA.  I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the PDA Board of Directors and staff, SAB, RAQAB and JPDA members and the companies that have provided me with much support. Encouragement from those I have worked with in the past and present has been a constant source of my motivation to improve my skills and knowledge.
I have also realized how crucial it is to communicate within the industry and PDA to
share knowledge and keep improving my expertise. I look forward to opportunities with other members to share information and ideas to solve quality assurance-related issues, and
help contribute to the knowledge development of younger members.

About Masahiro Akimoto

Masahiro is the Director of Quality Assurance Department at Heartseed Inc., conducting its research and development to realize cardiac regenerative therapy with an approach of practical use of iPS cell.

In his approximately 30 years in the field, Masahiro has been involved with CMC development, strategic quality planning for CTM production, technical transfer managements of sterile products, preparation of the quality sections of the marketing authorization dossier and quality assurance.

He earned his master’s degree in pharmaceutical science (physical chemistry) from the graduate school of the Pharmaceutical Institute, Tohoku University in 1987. He has been a registered pharmacist and an ASQ certified quality engineer.

Masahiro served two terms 2015-2020 as a board of director of PDA Global, and was also a member of PDA’s SAB (2014-2019) and the Aseptic Processing Points to Consider Task Force to (2016).